The international mammalian Genome society (IMGS) has sponsored a series of annual meetings beginning in 1990, with alternating location in the United States, Europe and japan. Reflecting the growth in activity in the field of mouse genetics, attendance at the IMGS conferences has grown threefold between 1990 and 1996, from 100 to 300 participants. These meetings provide the forum for annual meetings for the international mouse chromosome committees, which were first established at the 2990 meeting. These chromosome committees have generated reliable, updated genetic maps that integrate the positions of genes and mutants with anonymous DNA markers. These maps are the standard resource in the field. They are accessible electronically through the Mouse Genome Database and are published annually in a Special Issue of mammalian Genome, the Journal of the IMGS. The Chromosome Committee maps have been an important tool for the successful positional cloning of many mouse mutants that have direct application to human inherited disease and basic biology. The annual meetings have facilitated collaborations among groups working on the same mutants, provided a sense of community to investigators in the field, and provided a forum for annual meetings of the editorial Board of the society's journal, Mammalian Genome, and for the Mouse Nomenclature committee, a body that has maintained systematic nomenclature for mouse for more than 40 years, as well as the secretariat of the Society. The meetings have succeeded in attracting the participation of young investigators and new comers to the field, providing them an opportunity for contacts with established investigators. Speakers and chairs have included strong presentation of women and international participants. This application requests support for the next two meetings in this series, the 1997 meeting to be organized by Edward Wakeland in Florida, and the 1998 meeting to be organized by Rudi Balling in Germany. The intellectual focus of these meetings will be directed towards functional mammalian genomics, an area in which the mouse plays an increasingly central role. Major topics will include mutagenesis, analysis of quantitative and multigenic traits, and more efficient methods for functional evaluation of mutant mice.